


Something Lalonde This Way Comes

by Solitarysynonym



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-13 01:18:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5689063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solitarysynonym/pseuds/Solitarysynonym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calliope and Jade have been neighborhood girlfriends for years, but finally their differences are pulling them apart. When the Lalondes move in down the street, it seems like what could have been endless heartbreak might just be fate after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Lalonde This Way Comes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Part of Ladypalooza 2015!

“Look, it isn’t that I don’t enjoy hearing about your theories, I do, but I’m right in the middle of something,” Jade finally snapped when Calliope tried to push her latest piece into Jade’s field of view, disrupting Jade’s focus on writing up the results of her latest observations in the greenhouse.

Calliope bristled, taking a step back and looking hurt. “You told me you’d be available to spend some time together today,” Calliope said, looking down at the papers she had crumped in her hand.

Jade pushed her glasses up, rubbing the bridge of her nose tiredly. “And I will be, I just need to get this down first,” Jade said, trying to keep her tone more level.

“Sometimes I think I’d need to be green to get any attention from you,” Calliope mumbled, sitting on Jade’s bed and looking out the window rather than back at her girlfriend.

If she had had hackles, they would have been up. Instead Jade counted very slowly to ten in her head before responding. “I just need 15 more minutes. These results will be lost if I don’t record them,” she said, her voice rising before she forcibly levelled it.

Calliope stared out of the window.

With Calliope diverted, Jade felt safe rolling her eyes once before she got to her feet, padding across her untidy floor. “I’m sorry I know I said that and I intend to follow through…” she said, though Calliope continued to ignore her. Jade put her hand on the other’s shoulder, “Callie?”

Calliope jumped in surprise and looked up at Jade. “There’s a moving van,” she said in wonder, pointing down at the purple and black truck that had pulled up in front of the overpriced hunk of modern architecture that loomed over one corner of the block, obstinately refusing to blend with the rest of the quiet suburban houses. “Let’s go look!”

Jade counted to five in her head before smiling back at Calliope. Go on down! I’ll be there soon!” she said.

Calliope’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly before she smiled thinly back, her lips barely curving as she turned away and left, barely refraining from slamming the door.

Jade rubbed her face when she heard the front door downstairs close. Somehow they always seemed to be fighting these days. Things had been easier when they were younger, when their interests had been more aligned and Jade more willing to put aside her own pursuits. Jade loved her girlfriend but the breakup already felt inevitable, no matter how much history they had or how hard they tried to patch things up.

\----

Callie mingled shyly with a slowly growing crowd of curious neighbors as the moving people went about their business hauling boxes and furniture inside.

Her interest was beginning to wane when a pair of girls exited the house. They had the same face and coloration, but all else about them screamed of polar opposites. The girl on the left wore black and purple, her lips daubed black and quirked in a sardonic smile as she regarded the neighborhood with an air of disapproval. The girl on the right wore white and a pink so bright it almost hurt Callie’s eyes. The second girl’s smile was bright enough to blind and she caught Callie’s eye and winked.

Callie blushed, her stomach churning, and beat a hasty retreat back to Jade’s house rather than go home and have to deal with her own twin.

\----

Jade had put the time to good use and was nearly finished with her notations when Callie stretched out on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

Her mouth full of proposing that they separate, Jade refrained from speaking, staring studiously at her computer screen. Dear as Callie was to her, this relationship had run its course. They were different people now with different interests. Even so she worried that this would end their friendship as well, and she didn’t want that.

“I think we need to break up,” Callie said.

Jade jumped, her brain stuttering momentarily as it slowly caught up with the fact that Calliope had proposed this herself. “I… what?” Jade said, turning around.

“I want to break up with you,” Callie said, sitting up and meeting Jade’s eyes solemnly.

Slowly Jade nodded. “I still want us to be friends… when we can,” Jade said firmly. “I mean we should probably take some space at first…”

“I agree,” Calliope said with no few feelings of relief. “I… I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” She got up and left quickly.

Jade stared at where Callie had been, shock and relief and confusion swirling around her brain. “...Where did that come from so suddenly?” she said at last to no one in particular.

\----

Jade was relieved at how little tension lingered between them the next day. For now they kept a cautious distance but she felt more relaxed than she had in months, no more worries about complicated emotional missteps.

“Excuse me, where is room 413?” a brisk voice asked from behind her as Jade changed out books from her locker.

Jade looked around, startled, and found a short blonde girl. “Oh, just up those stairs,” Jade explained, pointing. She noticed the dangling tentacle shaped earrings as the blonde girl nodded and thanked her before walking off in the direction Jade had indicated.

Jade stared after her, wondering why the new student had singled Jade out of a crowded hall to ask for directions.

\----

“Kitty! You get down here right now!” a cheerful voice called loudly enough that Callie heard it even through her closed window. A quick glance showed her a black cat sitting just outside her window, staring in at her with the guileless superiority of a cat.

Callie carefully eased the window open and held out her hand for the cat to sniff. It arched against her fingers and she cautiously picked it up before looking for the source of the voice. The new neighbor in pink beamed up at her.

“You caught Vodka!” the girl cried.

“Umm, yes! Shall I bring ...Vodka down to you?”

“Yes please!”

Callie handed over the cat carefully, then shook the proffered hand as her new neighbor grinned.

“I’m Roxy, I just moved in!” Roxy said.

“I’m Callie and I live here with my twin brother… Was that girl with you your twin? You look a lot alike.”

“Wow another set of twins!” Roxy gushed, hugging her cat hard enough that it meowed a complaint. “Whoops, sorry kitty!” she said, kissing the top of its head.

“We should hang out some time!” Callie blurted, then blushed.

Roxy just grinned back. “Yes absolutely!”

\----

“Jade, right?” someone said, barely audible over the cacophony of the full lunch room.

Jade looked up from her textbook in surprise. “Who’s asking?”

“Me, Rose. Your new neighbor and schoolmate,” Rose said. “I was hoping to borrow your physics notes sometime to help me catch up on what I missed before my ridiculously impulsive mother decided to move us here after school had begun.” Rose sighed.

“I could tutor you until you’re back on your feet,” Jade proposed, her eyes already drifting back down to her back.

“Awfully neighborly of you,” Rose said calmly and left Jade to her reading and eating in peace.

Jade watched her go through thick eyelashes, surprised at how unobtrusive Rose had been. Though the breakup was going well, Jade found herself thinking about Callie frequently, most recently in something of a nightmare as they argued over and over about inconsequentialities and Callie kept trying to force her to read relationship diagrams. As much as Jade admired thorough scholarly work, in-depth analysis of relationships between characters on shows that Jade had never watched had become a chore and Callie was not entirely averse to using guilt to secure her audience.

With a mental shrug, Jade went back to her lunching.

\----

“Do you have any more notebooks of this?” Callie asked as she handed Roxy back the fourth notebook of elaborate wizard stories.

“Oh… No not yet,” Roxy said with a laugh, tucking her book away. “I write when the mood strikes and that is pretty unpredictable.”

“Oh,” Callie said, slightly crestfallen.

“Well hey! You said you have some things that you wrote! Why don’t we talk about your projects!” Roxy said happily.

Callie stared at her, then grinned, hopping up from the bed and digging out her sketchbook to share.

\----

“Tell me more about this golden city dream,” Rose said, tapping her pencil on her notepad.

Jade grinned at the ceiling. Physics tutoring had devolved into a debate about psychology and Rose had offered to show Jade that psychoanalysis was a superior method and demanded to demonstrate. Jade lay back on Rose’s bed, trying to behave as seriously as Rose as she talked about her recurring dreams.

Rose hmmed and tsked at appropriate intervals, scribbling furiously on the notepad.

“Sometimes I dream that my new friend is failing physics,” Jade said, all innocence.

“Interesting, why do you think that is?” Rose said coolly, not rising to Jade’s bait.

“Because she turns tutoring sessions into one-sided therapy,” Jade said sweetly.

“Perhaps she finds you more interesting than physics,” Rose said calmly.

Jade glanced over and blushed to see the smile on Rose’s black lips.

\----

Callie pursed her lips as she reread one of Roxy’s passages for the fourth time, trying to glean exactly what color Beatrix’s shirt should be. As much as she enjoyed the illustrations Roxy had done, Callie wanted to present her friend with a more elaborate illustration of her characters.

Callie chewed on her tongue as she worked, determined to make this perfect for Roxy.

\----

By chance, Callie and Jade arrived at school at the same time and, slightly awkwardly, walked in the front doors together.

“How have you been?” Jade asked, breaking the silence. “I’ve seen you hanging out with Roxy a lot. Are you getting along?”

“Probably about as well as you and Rose,” Callie said with a grin. She and Roxy had been charting Jade and Rose’s activities for fun, not that she intended to admit that to Jade.

“Oh… um… good!” Jade said, smiling a little sheepishly.

“Yes, very,” Calliope said smugly.


End file.
